In the midst of significant deaths in Ukraine, Russia’s parliament passed a measure abolishing the upper age limit for contractual military duty in double-quick time on Wednesday.
The bill was adopted by the State Duma lower house in three readings in a single session, and the Federation Council, the upper chamber, gave its assent shortly after. The bill now just requires President Vladimir Putin’s signature to become law.
Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said: ‘We need to boost the armed forces and assist the Ministry of Defense right now. Our Supreme Commander is doing everything he can to assure the victory of our armed forces, and we must assist him.’
Only Russians aged 18-40 and foreigners aged 18-30 can currently enlist in the Russian military as professional soldiers.
Fighting in Ukraine has cost Russian forces a lot of lives.
Since Moscow dispatched its armed forces into Ukraine on February 24, 1,351 Russian service personnel have been killed and 3,825 have been wounded, according to the defence ministry. Since then, it hasn’t updated its casualty figures.
Russian losses in Ukraine were much larger at the time, according to both Ukrainian and Western intelligence officials, and have escalated sharply since March.
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